Uninvited Modifications
by The Alleycat Ulan
Summary: James had had a plan, but then Lily had to go and ruin it. Well not so much ruin it more like…modify it? James/Lily oneshot.


_Hey there!_

_Had this fic floating around for a little while, I'm not too sure about the ending, but oh well posting it made me feel productive. ^-^_

_Thank you Kitty for editing for me, even though that was ages ago =P_

_Enjoy!_

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**Uninvited (but not unwelcome) Modifications**

_James had had a plan, but then Lilly had to go and ruin it. Well not so much ruin it more like…modify it?_

_

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_It was June and the summer that had just set in was promising to be a scorcher. The sun beat down hot during the day ad the nights echoed the heat with humid, still air that suffocated. People hardly left their houses during the preferring the early hours of the morning or the late afternoon when it was perhaps a little cooler. It was almost as though the summer had reduced the country of Great Britain into some sort of nocturnal nation, where its people slept the day away and only came out at night, weather permitting.

James Potter and Lily Evans were no exceptions. They opted to spend the days holed up in the Potter's family home in Godric's Hollow and only ventured out at night. Even then on when they had too. The couple preferred to send Remus out on errands whenever possible, he seemed somewhat less susceptible to the heat and always liked to do what he could to help out the people who had opened their home to him.

James had carefully thought through his plan, leaving nothing to chance. He had snuck into the kitchen during the day when Lily was asleep and drained all of the milk ensuring that Remus would go out that evening to get some more. It would have been simpler, of course, just to ask his friend if he could leave the house for a while so that James execute his life changing plan, but that hadn't occurred to him until after he had downed 3 litres of milk. So he ate all the remaining biscuits as well, just for good measure, and then explained the whole thing to Remus who decided against questioning his friend's logic; it just wasn't worth the head ache.

And so it happened that that evening Remus left the house early, saying he was going to the shops to get some milk and biscuits, while secretly agreeing to James' suggestion that he would not return for at least five hours. At the time James had put this suggestion to him Remus had asked if it would really take five hours for him to put his plan into action, a question Remus had later regretted asking after James plunged into a long and comprehensive explanation of the plan. He had skipped no detail when it came to explaining just how important it was to ensure the correct atmosphere and timing, as well as taking into consideration the length of the two person celebration that would no doubt take place after the successful execution of the elaborate plan.

As Remus stepped out into the muggy air he entertained the thought of moving in with Sirius, thinking for one fleeting moment that it might be better for his sanity, considering Sirius always preferred simple plans to the antagonising complex ones James always insisted on. Then he berated himself for his stupidity; Sirius would drive him mad slightly quicker than James would, and Remus wanted to prolong his sanity not eradicate it. Although now that he thought about it, if James' plan did go ahead without a hitch, however unlikely that was, maybe it would be better for him to move out. But he'd ponder that later, when he got back, right now it would be better to try and figure out what he was going to do for the next five hours.

So far an hour and a half into his plan everything was going well. James was rather proud of himself; he'd managed to set up the perfect romantic atmosphere. Well no, it wasn't really what you'd call romantic.

In truth there was nothing even remotely romantic about the atmosphere, or at least not the normal concept of the word. There wasn't any romantic music, or chocolate, or dimmed lights.

And there certainly weren't any candles. Not because James wasn't a romanticist, but because Lily thought they were a fire hazard. Or maybe she'd said when he was around they were a fire hazard, either way all he'd gathered from the conversation was 'no candles. Ever'.

The point was James had not tried to make the atmosphere romantic. He had wanted to make it perfect for the two of them, for her, and that was exactly what he had achieved.

The two of them were sitting in the lounge room watching TV. A pass-time Lily had introduced him to; the closest thing muggles had to magic and James had to admit it was rather amusing. Lily sat on the floor in front him, knees drawn up to her chest, back against his legs. She was still in her pyjamas; they were rather boring if you were to compare them to other girls', just a plain shirt of James' that was a little too big for her and hung loosely on her slim frame paired with a colourful pair of patterned boxer shorts, but James thought she was as sexy as hell.

The window was open permitting a refreshing, cool breeze in to drive away the stale air of the day. James found it intriguing the way it tugged at her dark red locks. He took a strand, twisting it through his fingers, absolutely captivated by the way it shone in the light, its softness, everything.

Lily giggled at something on the TV and James snapped his attention to the movie, where it should have been. It was some sort of 'chick flick' Lily had chosen, but James found he didn't really mind them; chick flicks that is, although he would never admit it to Sirius or Remus.

This one was about a girl who was 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride', or something along those lines. James wondered if this was what you would call providence, but then he decided it probably wasn't, if his history of misuse of the English language was anything to go by.

20 minutes later the movie was drawing to a close and James was preparing to launch into the second phase of his plan when Lily interrupted his line of thought.

"We should get married," she said it so suddenly James laughed in surprise. She tilted her head back and grinned up at him, "I'm dead serious you know," she reprimanded him with mock sternness.

James blinked at her; somehow the love of his life had managed to ruin his plan in exactly four words. That had to be some kind of record. If Remus were here he'd be dying of laughter. James struggled to think of something to say, "Ahh…"

Lily raised an eyebrow; waiting for him to continue. She knew James could be a little slower than other people sometimes so she had to be patient. He looked cute though, she had to admit, when he screwed his face up like that when he was trying to think and the expression knocked his glasses slightly askew.

"Lily…" he said finally, and she held back a little laugh surely he'd thought of something more to say than just her name?

"Yeah?"

"Umm…" James was floundering now that his plan had been blown. Why the hell couldn't she stick to the plan? Oh right, he hadn't told her. Why hadn't he told…oh yeah it was supposed to be a surprise… "Can I tell you something?" he blushed slightly despite himself and stared hard at the bang of hair still twisted around his fingers.

All this did was add to Lily's curiosity and amusement, "Always," she grinned. He was acting like a guilty little child.

"I kinda had this plan…" he glanced at her quickly then looked back down at his hands, "…and you kinda ruined it…" James snuck another look at her face and could see the puzzlement starting to cross her face, "No, um it's like ah…we were going to finish this movie and then we were going to go for a walk, I knew it'd be nice out tonight that's why I was gonna do it tonight, and we'd go to the park and then I was…" he glanced at her again, "I…I was gonna propose…"

Lily twisted around so she was facing him, "James…"

"Please will you?" he blurted out, "I mean I have the ring and everything and I really, really love you and…I had it all planned out and you ruined it, so now it's not even perfect but…"

Lily laughed, took his hands in hers and reached up to kiss him gently.

James blinked in surprise, "Is that a yes?"

Lily laughed again, "Yes James, that was a yes,"

"Oh good," he paused for a minute thinking it over. He had planned for the whole thing to take five hours, before Lily had ruined it, so that meant he still had-he glanced at the clock- three and a half hours…

"Hey, Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"You know how I said I had my plan?"

"Yeah,"

"Well I was thinking…"

Lily frowned at him, "Just get on with it James," she told him sternly.

"Haha, ok yes er well, the original plan had five steps and since you kinda modified step four, and we've already completed step one how about we do steps two and three and then skip straight to five?"

"Five steps?" Lily asked, thinking it over, "One was the movie, two the walk, three the park, four you propose…what was step five?"

"My favourite," James smirked, a twinkle in his eye, "celebration,"

"Ah, I see," Lily grinned at him, "Sounds like a plan."

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_Like it? Was the ending perhaps a little bit blah?_


End file.
